Complaints and compliments are on the rise at a Shropshire council

The local authority says 659 were made during 2023/24, up from 601 that were received in 2022/23.

That made up the majority of the total complaints made (721), with the remaining being children’s services and adult social care.

During 2023/24, the council responded to corporate complaints in an average of 10 days (up from 11) and well within the 15 working day target timescale.

Of the 659 corporate complaints received, 42 percent (271) were upheld, meaning that it was acknowledged that services could have done better.

Although there are no major trends, common themes across all directorates included issues with communication and action, complaints involving staff, delays and processing, or administrative errors.

Meanwhile, 17 complaints were escalted to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, with one made about adult social care upheld.

Telford & Wrekin Council has said that in the upheld case, it has apologised to customers involved and looking to improve practices.

Elsewhere, there has been a 13 percent increase in the number of compliments the council has received. Feedback from customers in relation to its Corporate Contact Centre indicates that performance is excellent, with customer satisifcation on telephone calls rated at 93 per cent.

In addition, 99 percent of customers were also satisified with the experience by using the council’s automatied assistance, ‘ask Tom’.

Alongside the physical and telephone reviews, ‘mystery customers’ have also completed digital reviews. This has included testing the cost of living and revenues pages on the council’s website.

During 2023/24, 72 customer insight assisgnments were completed, with 87 percent satisfaction with the experience when using the council’s services.

Feedback can be provided by QR code surveys, automated telephone surveys at the end of calls, mystery customer programme and other mechanisms, such as the ‘making it real board’. Any improvements are included on the council’s ‘you said, we did’ section of its website.

The full report has been sent to Cabinet members ahead of Wednesday’s meeting.